Piezoelectric Polymer Transducer Arrays for Flexible Tactile Sensors (original) (raw)
Related papers
A Tactile Sensing System Based on Arrays of Piezoelectric Polymer Transducers
Smart Actuation and Sensing Systems: Recent Advances and Future Challenges, 2012
A multidisciplinary approach to the electro-mechanical design and development of integrated transduction systems for large scale tactile sensors is presented in this chapter. The charge response of single piezoelectric polymer films is exploited to design suitable embedded interface electronics and to optimize the overall behavior of novel sensor devices. The system design and development issues are outlined and discussed. Current results and achievements on the modeling, design, manufacturing, testing and data processing of skin prototypes are presented.
Design, fabrication and test of arrays of piezoelectric transducers for robotic tactile sensors
The present paper presents the manufacturing technology of a robot skin made of 2D arrays of piezoelectric transducers. Inkjet printing has been used to provide the piezoelectric film of patterned electrodes. The experimental tests on fabricated skin prototypes reveal the reliability and potentialities of the proposed technology to fabricate large area robot skin. The challenge is to obtain an effective robotic touch sensing system which not only provides fast response, high spatial resolution and wide dynamics but which is also able to cope the requirements of robustness, scalability, reproducibility, light weight and low cost necessary to build a large area skin system.
Sensors and Actuators A: Physical, 2011
In this paper an experimental setup and experimental procedures which allow a fast and complete characterization of piezoelectric films continuously over the 1 Hz-1 kHz frequency range are reported. Some results related to PVDF electro-mechanical characterization are also presented. This work is intended as the first step for the electro-mechanical design of innovative integrated transductions systems for tactile sensors in robotic applications. The article concludes with a summary and a discussion of future investigations.
A Flexible Polymer Tactile Sensor: Fabrication and Modular Expandability for Large Area Deployment
Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems, 2006
In this paper, we propose and demonstrate a modular expandable capacitive tactile sensor using polydimethylsiloxsane (PDMS) elastomer. A sensor module consists of 16 16 tactile cells with 1 mm spatial resolution, similar to that of human skin, and interconnection lines for expandability. The sensor has been fabricated by using five PDMS layers bonded together. In order to customize the sensitivity of a sensor, we cast PDMS by spin coating and cured it on a highly planarized stage for uniform thickness. The cell size is 600 600 m 2 and initial capacitance of each cell is about 180 fF. Tactile response of a cell has been measured using a commercial force gauge having 1 mN resolution and a motorized-axis precision stage with 100 nm resolution. The fabricated cell shows a sensitivity of 3%/mN within the full scale range of 40 mN (250 kPa). Four tactile modules have been successfully attached by using anisotropic conductive paste to demonstrate expandability of the proposed sensors. Various tactile images have been successfully captured by single sensor module as well as the expanded 32 32 array sensors.
Fabrication and Characterization of Electro-Active Polymer for Flexible Tactile Sensing Array
Key Engineering Materials, 2008
This paper presents fabrication and characterization of a pressure-sensitive polymeric composite on a flexible readout circuit as an artificial skin. Porous nylon was used as the matrix, which provided skin-like mechanical properties. Inside the matrix, polypyrrole was electrochemically deposited and acted as conductive dopant. The fabrication was detailed. The conductivity of the fabricated composite increased when a compressive load was applied. The electro-mechanical characteristics of the composite were measured. Fig.1 (a) Schematics of the flexible tactile sensor; (b) SEM image of porous nylon. 50µm Key Materials Vols. 381-382 (2008) pp 391-394 online at http://www.scientific.net
Flexible Dome and Bump Shape Piezoelectric Tactile Sensors Using PVDF-TrFE Copolymer
Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems, 2008
In this paper, a new mold-transfer method to pattern piezoelectric polymer has been developed and applied to fabricate innovative dome and bump shape polyvinylidenefluoride-trifluoroethylene (PVDF-TrFE) films. The dome and bump shape PVDF-TrFE films have been successfully fabricated and characterized as a sensing component for flexible tactile sensors. The tactile sensors developed using these polymer microstructures show a high sensitivity which can measure as small as 40 mN force for bump shape sensors and 25 mN for dome shape sensors. The newly developed fabrication method provides a flexible way to pattern the piezoelectric polymer with different shapes and dimensions, including bump and dome shape piezoelectric polymer microstructures. In addition, a selective dc poling method for the PVDF-TrFE film has been developed for fabricating precisely located piezoelectric sensors with minimum crosstalk. The bump and dome shape PVDF-TrFE films developed in this paper can have numerous applications for microcatheters or other minimally invasive biomedical devices.
Development of polyimide flexible tactile sensor skin
Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering, 2003
We present a novel microfabrication process for realizing a new type of flexible sensory "smart skin". In this work, we focus on demonstration of a skin containing a two dimensional array of tactile sensors using polyimide and metal strain gauges. A novel polymer microfabrication approach coupled with surface release methods is demonstrated. The process yields flexible sensory skins in a low cost, efficient manner. Experimental characterization of the devices is also presented. The demonstrated sensors use metal-film strain gauges in a multiplexed two-dimensional array of tactile pixels (taxels) embedded in a polyimide thin film membrane to detect force distribution on the flexible skin. The arrays have been used to image force distributions and could be used with slip-detection friction measurement for robotic gripping application.
Sensors
Tactile sensors are widely employed to enable the sense of touch for applications such as robotics and prosthetics. In addition to the selection of an appropriate sensing material, the performance of the tactile sensing system is conditioned by its interface electronic system. On the other hand, due to the need to embed the tactile sensing system into a prosthetic device, strict requirements such as small size and low power consumption are imposed on the system design. This paper presents the experimental assessment and characterization of an interface electronic system for piezoelectric tactile sensors for prosthetic applications. The interface electronic is proposed as part of a wearable system intended to be integrated into an upper limb prosthetic device. The system is based on a low power arm-microcontroller and a DDC232 device. Electrical and electromechanical setups have been implemented to assess the response of the interface electronic with PVDF-based piezoelectric sensors....
This study deals with ultrasonic wave propagation on a piezoelectric polymer substrate for tactile actuator. On the piezoelectric polymer substrate, a pair of interdigital transductor (IDT) electrodes is patterned by lift-off process and a resonator is made by exciting the IDTs. A standing wave is generated between the pair of IDT electrodes, of which the wavelength matches with the distance between two IDTs. The standing ultrasonic waves can give different textures to the users. The wave propagation in this periodic structure on the polymer substrate is studied by harmonic and transient analysis. Vertical displacement and induced voltage at the output IDT electrode are calculated and the ultrasonic wave generation is experimentally verified. The proposed concept of tactile actuator based on ultrasonic wave is explained.